Nick Pliam

Dr. Nick Pliam joined Decheng Capital at its inception in 2011 and is based in Decheng’s Menlo Park office. Trained as an orthopedic surgeon and endocrine physiologist, he brings scientific, clinical, business and investment experience. He serves on the boards of CardiMED, Centricity Vision, Ketai Medical, Nalu Medical and Polares Medical.

Prior to joining Decheng, Dr. Pliam was a venture partner at Bay City Capital, where served on the boards of Nevro (NYSE:NVRO), which was incubated at Bay City to become a global leader in neuromodulation for chronic pain management, Aragon Surgical (acquired by Aesculap) and the peripheral vascular stent company IDev Technologies (acquired by Abbott).

Prior to joining Bay City Capital, he served as an advisor to several pharmaceutical and medical technology companies and was a managing director of a New York based, boutique investment banking firm. He is co-founder of Pharmagenesis, which focused on drug discovery from natural products and of Guided Delivery Systems (now Ancora Heart).

Dr. Pliam obtained an undergraduate degree in German Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, following yearlong studies at the Georg August Universität in Göttingen, Germany. He received an MD from Dartmouth Medical School and a PhD in Endocrine Physiology from the University of California, San Francisco. Following two years’ general surgery residency at UCSF, he completed his orthopedic surgical residency at the Stanford University Medical Center. Following clinical training, he was a staff physician in the departments of orthopedic surgery at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Stanford Medical Center.